YOU ALMOST felt sorry (I exaggerate for literary effect) for Odysseas after his acolyte and chief dirt-thrower Andreas Hasapopoulos publicly turned against him, accusing his former hero of having some people by his side who “should have been in prison for corruption issues.”
He was referring to individuals who were by the great man’s side when he was announcing the creation of his Alma movement but failed to name any of them. The allegations by Hasap, a retired employee of the audit office, who ran the Odysseas fan club and website Support Team of the Auditor General that viciously attacked anyone who dared cross the great man, were made on a show on Alpha TV.
The fascinating thing was that the presenter of the show was hackette Katia Savva, who had herself been a target of a nasty, offensive post on the website. Hasap said that he had intended to take down the post, but its ‘creator’ would not allow him to do so. Again, he gave no name, but he implied it was his hero.
Given that Odysseas, as auditor-general, posted nasty comments on a website against people that did not recognise his greatness, the eight judges of the supreme constitutional court that unanimously found him guilty of inappropriate behaviour, might not have been as corrupt as he claimed. Had he lied to the court when he said he had nothing to do with the dirt-throwing website?
AFTER the sacking of Ody, the attack website was renamed ‘Group for the combating of corruption’ as it could not support the new auditor general and continue its noble work of praising its hero while pouring vitriol on his critics.
It changed line when Ody decided to cut his ties with Hasap – he did not even get an invite to the Alma launch – because he realised it would be rather embarrassing for Alma to be associated with his rottweiler, but did not consider the consequences of cutting him loose.
There were anonymous attacks on social media, before the corruption-busting group’s website attacked Ody’s Alma lieutenant Charidemos Tsoukas. His crime was that he held the Columbia Ship Management seat at Cyprus University and Columbia had contributed 200 grand to Nik II’s election campaign.
To prove that hell hath no fury like an acolyte scorned, Hasap also attacked another Ody lieutenant, former rector of Cyprus University Constantinos Christofides, who has said he will sue. Hasap was treated very shabbily by Ody, who happily used him to do his dirty work but now wants nothing to do with him. He even put an age limit of 69 for Alma parliamentary candidates to prevent his previously trusted assault dog from being eligible to stand.
FRIENDS of the greatly-loved Katie Clerides, who passed away last Monday aged 76, would have been left speechless hearing the fib uttered by Nik the First to hacks after Wednesday’s funeral service.
After usual cliches about “the political life of the country being poorer from today,” the thespian former prez said: “I am here to honour this personality, with whom lately we had regular contact.” This was a lie, according to close friends. Katie had no time for Nik I, whom she could not stand.
She resigned as commissioner for the missing six months after he appointed her because she could not work with him and be held him responsible for torpedoing a settlement at Crans Montana so he could carry on selling passports. In response, he accused her of being the “carrier (achthoforos) of a great name.”
The idea that she was in regular contact with a man whom she had such low regard for during the last weeks of her life is preposterous. Even good people draw the line somewhere.
FIRST LADY Philippa Karsera Christodoulidou (PKC), is treating the foreign ministry a bit like her family supermarket, staff members have been saying. She might not be there every day, but when she does show up she issues orders to all departments, even though, theoretically, she is in charge of Consular Services and the Schengen Directorate.
The gossip is that she may have been involved in the hirings of some 20 people at the foreign ministry, which resulted in candidates taking legal action against the government for hiring people who did poorly in the exam, on the strength of interviews. What is the world coming to when you can’t hire whomever you want at your family supermarket?
Although she may have had nothing to do with the above-mentioned rusfetological hirings, the appointment of Theodora Constantinidou as permanent secretary of the foreign ministry on August 1, our mole informs us, had PKC written all over it. Foreign minister Kombos, who was not consulted although it is his responsibility to choose the prem sec, could not really complain.
If it were not for PKC, he would not be strutting around pretending he has relevance in world affairs.
SPEAKING of PKC we have not heard anything recently about Kyproulla’s imminent entry into the Schengen area, which she is in charge of, and which according to her hubby will happen in the first six months of next year, when we have the presidency of the European Council.
Could this be another case of the Prez being carried away and opening his big mouth to say something that sounds good? This presidential habit of firing words without thinking in order to impress the public was exhibited in all its glory last Sunday when he was asked to comment on remarks made about Kyproulla not paying its Great Sea Interconnector dues by the Admie president.
“If the head of Admie thinks that with such letters or paid announcements the Cyprus Republic can be blackmailed, he obviously does not know who he is dealing with,” he said, sounding like some paranoid mafia boss, before adding: “The Cyprus government cannot be blackmailed by any head of Admie…”
The next day Greece’s energy minister politely suggested our Prez did not know what he was talking about. He said 51 per cent of Admie belonged to the Greek state which does not blackmail, indicating that he knew exactly who he was dealing with.
IT WAS impossible for Israel and Hamas to sign a ceasefire agreement without our Prez not attempting to have a role. On Saturday the government spokesman Mini Me said the Prez had telephone conversations with Israel’s PM and Egypt’s president “within the framework of a series of contacts on the latest developments in the Middle East….”
In both telephone conversations, Mini Me said, he “highlighted the role of the Cyprus Republic as a reliable partner and stable pylon in the Middle East, underlining our country’s readiness to carry on actively contributing to the common effort for stability, humanitarian support, and reconstruction of the region.”
They both listened attentively to these nonsensical platitudes, as they obviously knew who they were dealing with.
THE NICOSIA Bookfest is taking place at Acropolis park this weekend. Today is the last day so you can visit. It is the tenth year of this commendable event which our establishment wholeheartedly supports. Buying books has become a heroic act in the era of digitalisation and smartphones.
I was a bit confused by the radio advert publicising the event. It said that this year’s festival would be honouring French literature and culture, and immediately after said there would be a special tribute to Mikis Theodorakis and Manos Hadzidakis. Both were world renowned composers, but they did not make a contribution to literature, let alone French literature.
UNFICYP’S strength of about 800 personnel has been reduced by 34 people as part of the budget cuts the UN has made to nine peacekeeping missions, reported Politis on Friday. This “applies even greater pressure to the already contracted force in fulfilling its obligations.”
Seriously? Is anyone going to lose sleep over the reduction of Unficyp by 34 personnel? Will the reduction of personnel by almost – but not quite – 0.5 per cent increase the probability of war on the island? Will understaffing Unficyp prevent the resumption of talks?
Politis should worry. This is a stable pylon in the Middle East the stability of which will not be affected by 34 fewer Unficyp soldiers.
